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As the Philippines explores its vast wind energy potential, the newly launched ZX 300e wind Lidar from ZX Lidars represents the culmination of 15 years of global development, providing validated, finance-grade data across the entire rotor span of today’s largest turbines. It brings together extensive IEC classification and independent verifications, offering developers, consultants and investors a trusted foundation for project confidence.

With wind turbines now reaching hub heights of more than 150 m and rotor diameters beyond 200 m. Accurately characterising wind flow through this full swept area is essential for reliable energy yield assessments and for securing investment. Traditional meteorological masts, once the benchmark for wind measurement, become increasingly impractical at such heights – costly to construct, time-consuming to permit, and challenging to maintain in remote or coastal locations.

Wind Lidar, by contrast, measures the wind remotely using the Doppler principle, profiling it vertically from near-ground to 300 m. The ZX 300e, a compact continuous-wave (CW) Lidar, provides continuous, high-frequency measurements without the physical constraints of a mast. Data can be retrieved remotely in real time, even from hard-to-access or typhoon-prone areas – a practical advantage for the Philippines’ archipelagic geography, where logistics, terrain and permitting often limit the use of tall towers.

World-First IEC Classification: 21 – 200 m

The ZX 300e is the first ground-based Lidar to achieve IEC 61400-50-2 Classification across a full order of magnitude in height – from 21 m to 200 m. Five campaigns were conducted across three independent sites using multiple Lidars rotated between locations. The tests analysed sensitivity to turbulence, shear, veer, and temperature gradients in line with the IEC methodology.

The results were definitive:

• Final accuracy class: 0 %
• Standard uncertainty: 0 % at all heights

This world-first classification provides the most comprehensive uncertainty profile ever achieved for a remote-sensing device, confirming that ZX 300e performs predictably across all atmospheric conditions and turbine heights.

Independent Performance Verifications

To complement its formal classification, ZX 300e underwent an extensive programme of independent verifications worldwide:

• Tall-mast comparisons (to 200 m): At facilities in Europe and the UK, ZX 300e achieved correlation slopes within ± 1 %, R² > 0.985, and data availability above 95 %.
• Fleet-wide “Midar” verifications (to 300 m): Using a novel mast-plus-Lidar reference system, more than 25 ZX 300e units were verified up to 300 m, maintaining correlation slopes within ± 1 % and data availability > 96 % at 250 m.
• Directional accuracy: Within ± 0.5°, with no systematic bias, supporting use in energy yield analysis and operational management studies.
• Turbulence Intensity (TI): Through the METICE (Model Ensemble Turbulence Intensity Cup Equivalence) method, ZX 300e delivers cup-equivalent TI across 17 sites worldwide, meeting all CFARS criteria for turbine design and site suitability.
• Complex terrain: At steep, high-RIX sites, ZX 300e combined with CFD conversions achieved gradients of 0.994 and R² of 0.988 – finance-grade equivalence even in rugged environments.

Together, these campaigns constitute the most comprehensive validation programme ever applied to a ground-based wind Lidar.

A Proven, Bankable Platform

With many thousands of vertical-profiling Lidars deployed globally, ZX Lidars’ CW technology has become a cornerstone of modern wind assessment. For developers, ZX 300e enables faster project timelines, simpler logistics, and lower uncertainty in annual energy production (AEP) estimates.

For operators, it offers a permanent measurement solution for operational monitoring and repowering. For lenders and insurers, the evidence base reduces measurement uncertainty, directly improving project bankability.

This dual foundation pf formal classification plus real-world verification makes ZX 300e the most validated and finance-grade Lidar on the market today.

Why It Matters in the Philippines

The Philippines is now entering a pivotal phase of wind development. The Department of Energy has identified more than 76 GW of offshore wind potential, and onshore prospects are being mapped across Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

Achieving this potential requires dependable wind data. Remote, elevated and coastal sites across the islands make tall met masts logistically difficult, while timelines and permitting constraints favour rapid, mobile solutions. Lidar technology like ZX 300e addresses all these barriers.

Local service providers are already beginning to deploy Lidars for feasibility studies and long-term measurement campaigns, ensuring early-stage projects meet international data standards. With validated technology and consultant acceptance, the Philippines can accelerate project development and investor confidence simultaneously. In a regional context, this positions the country alongside emerging Southeast Asian markets adopting Lidar as their primary measurement method – a shift that ensures their projects align with global best practice from the outset.

Conclusion: The Benchmark Raised Again

Through world-first IEC Classification, comprehensive performance verifications, and a decade-long record of reliability, ZX 300e defines a new standard for wind measurement. As the Philippines and other emerging markets pursue ambitious renewable-energy goals, validated, finance-grade Lidar data will underpin success ensuring that development decisions, turbine selection, and investment models are built on evidence, not assumption. With ZX 300e, that confidence is already proven.

About ZX Lidars (formerly ZephIR Lidar)

ZX Lidars provides industry-leading wind lidar products, ZX 300e (an evolution of the ZX 300 and the first wind Lidar to achieve 20 – 200m IEC Classification and 300m Performance Verifications), ZX 300M and ZX TM for wind energy and meteorological applications. These Lidars deliver accurate wind measurements in both onshore and offshore applications at measurement heights / ranges across the full swept area of the blades of modern wind turbines, and beyond. With more than 30 million hours of operation in the field and over 15,000 deployments (and counting), ZX Lidars has pioneered the use of Lidar in the wind industry. The company is proud of the many world firsts it has achieved with customers including: upwind measurements from a turbine nacelle, turbine wake studies, offshore deployments of both fixed and floating wind lidar, an industry-accepted validation process, re-financing and re- powering of a wind farm, successful demonstration of measurement accuracy in a wind tunnel and total wind project financing from a lidar without need for a met mast.

To find out more visit: www.zxlidars.com or contact: [email protected] +44 (0) 7825 159 082

ZX Lidars HQ, Willow End, Blackmore Park Road, Malvern, WR13 6BD Visit www.zxlidars.com for more information.

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